Ray Kimble

Ward Two Councilman Steve Rovell 

BELLEVILLE - Less than a week before Election Day, both sides open up with everything they’ve got, and the resulting facial expressions and body language indicate that some of the shots have landed.

A glossy mail piece hits the tightknit blue collar neighborhoods off Franklin Avenue that run up against the Parkway on the other side. The man whose face appears in unflattering photos on those mailers storms to the microphone at a rally for him and his running mates.

"It’s pure and utter B.S.," cries Ward Two Councilman Steve Rovell, referring to challenger Mario Drozdz’s charges that Rovell was part of a team that increased taxes $10 million in thee years, indulged in political favoritism and hired nearly a million dollar’s worth of town employees who don’t live in Belleville.

Ward Three Council candidate Paul "P.J." Mac Donald, right, with his ally, Belleville Mayor Ray Kimble. 

BELLEVILLE - All over town, the headquarters of candidates are shuttered on a Monday afternoon, with the exception of Paul "P.J." Mac Donald’s campaign digs on Washington Avenue.

The mood is grimly combative in this roomful of politicians and former cops as Mac Donald recounts what led him to this point, eight days before the May 13 election.

"There was an empty seat and some friends asked me if I’d be interested in running," he says. "I went down to the mayor’s office and sought his support. I called every public official and every one of them gave me his blessing.

"Then I called Caputo."

Its geography just above Newark's North Ward makes Belleville look like a natural complement to the political kingdom of Steve Adubato, who nevertheless denies he's personally backing anyone in nonpartisan municipal races in this hardscrabble town, with a population that hovers around 34,000.

"Belleville's always worried about me going over there," said the North Ward Democratic leader. "I was looking for a place for a charter school once. I went over to Belleville. That would have been great for Belleville, but they weren't interested."

The specter of Adubato in Belleville's May 13th elections comes in part as a result of Assemblyman (and Freeholder) Ralph Caputo's support of three candidates who have teamed up to try to unseat Mayor Ray Kimble's slate. Adubato and Caputo go way back, to when the latter lived in Newark before moving to Belleville. And, of course, it was Caputo who was part of the district 28 ticket that last year ousted Sen. Ron Rice's running mates, Oadline Truitt and Craig Stanley.

"Change is in the air," mused the new assemblyman, consciously invoking the clear-the-decks campaign slogan currently most associated with presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.